Recently, there were many discussions about Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and whether it was a successful project. Many people believed that BCH had no real use cases and did not have any way to compete with BTC. The wave of disbelief intensified after the BCH price plummeted under $100 once again this July.
Despite the price drop, BCH is still holding its position in the top 30 cryptocurrencies with a market cap of over $2 billion. In this article, you will learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of using Bitcoin Cash, its prospects, and whether the BCH to BTC swap is a good investment decision.
Is Bitcoin Cash Better Than Bitcoin?
Bitcoin Cash is a hard fork of Bitcoin (BTC), which occurred on August 1, 2017. It was created because some miners were unhappy with the block size limit and other network changes made by BTC developers. The issue was that the original Bitcoin network could only process around three transactions per second. It was too slow for mass adoption as a payment system.
Bitcoin Cash is a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. It was created to address the scalability issues of Bitcoin. The maximum block size of BCH is 32 MB. It allows for more transactions per second (TPS) than BTC can handle, which makes it better suited for commerce and payments.
The main differences between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash are their transaction speed, block size, and transaction fees. Here are the distinctions between the coins worth noting:
| Main Characteristics | Bitcoin (BTC) | Bitcoin Cash (BCH) |
| Year of creation | 2009 | 2017 |
| Block size | 1 MB | 32 MB |
| Average trading fee | $1.2 | $0.003 |
| TPS | 5 | 116 |
| Market cap | $420B | $2,3B |
Due to its larger block size, the BCH network is more scalable and capable of conducting more transactions in one block.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Using BCH
Using BCH on a daily basis comes with its advantages:
- Low fees. The cost of using Bitcoin Cash is significantly lower than the cost of using Bitcoin. With BCH, you’ll be able to send more tokens with significantly lower fees.
- Fast transactions. Transactions on the BCH network are confirmed faster than those on other networks due to its larger blocks.
- BCH is a decentralized cryptocurrency that is not controlled by any single entity. No one can decide to change the rules of the network without consensus from users.
There are also some drawbacks of using BCH:
- Low liquidity. The BCH network is still relatively small compared to its peers such as BTC and ETH. As a result, there are fewer exchanges that support it and less liquidity than other coins.
- Mining is less profitable. Compared to BTC, BCH has a significantly lower block mining reward.
- Unstable price. BCH’s price has been fluctuating wildly. Its current price is much lower than it was in 2017.
As you can see, the use of BCH comes with its own set of pros and cons, and every investor decides which side holds more weight for them.
BCH Price Analysis: Is BCH Booming?
BCH is currently traded for $120. It’s significantly lower than even its starting price of $441 in 2017. BTC’s all-time high was at $4,355 during the first major BTC craze in December 2017. There were other BCH bull runs in May 2018 and May 2021, but they weren’t able to break the $1,600 mark.
According to the BCH price prediction analysis done by Digitalcoinprice, BCH will be traded for $187 by the end of 2022. Crypto experts at Priceprediction believe that BCH will break its all-time high no sooner than 2030. Experts at Tradingbeasts are less optimistic predicting the BCH price to stand at $268 at maximum in 2025.
Conclusion
BCH is a peer-to-peer blockchain project that anyone can contribute to. It’s a perfect substitute for BTC if you want a faster and cheaper alternative for trading. However, BCH is yet to prove itself as a successful long-term project. Its price has been moving down, and many crypto experts don’t see it recovering in the next five years. Always view and analyze BCH, BTC, or AION price before investing in any of these projects.
